Kinnock says winter fuel cut and welfare policies turned Welsh voters against Labour

Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has said that UK government welfare policies turned disillusionment with Labour in Wales into "active dislike" ahead of May's Senedd election. Lord Kinnock said decisions on benefits and winter fuel payments had driven voters in Wales away from the Welsh arm of the party before the country's parliamentary elections in May. He made the comments as part of a Newyddion S4C YouTube special examining Andy Burnham's first 100 days as Prime Minister. He noted that governing "at both ends of the M4" before Wales' parliamentary elections had presented an extra challenge for his party. "If there is any opposition or resentment to the government on either end of the M4, the other lot are going to pay as well," he said. "There is no doubt in my mind" that "alienation... had been creeping up," Lord Kinnock said, adding that it "could be a mixture of boredom. It could be a mixture of dislike." He said what "turned that into active dislike" had been measures such as the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance, the threats to the welfare system, and the failure to scrap the two-child benefit cap quickly enough. In June last year, the Labour UK government reversed its controversial decision to means-test winter fuel payments for pensioners in England and Wales. Before the U-turn, winter fuel payments had fallen by 9.3 million. Almost one year later, Labour lost power in Wales in a seismic election in May, returning just nine Senedd members after running the Welsh government for 27 years. Lord Kinnock, who is the father of Welsh Secretary Stephen Kinnock, also voiced reservations about devolving justice to Wales, a key demand of the Plaid Cymru Welsh government. Plaid ministers argue that devolution would allow for a more effective system tailored to Welsh communities and better integrated with health, housing and education. Lord Kinnock said there would be no "much of an argument" against the idea if it meant that "Wales was better protected, that the streets were safer" and "that the justice system was more efficient". "But those guarantees are absent at the moment," he said. "Until they exist, until they're in place, the upheaval of creating what would have to be effectively a new system with new management... with an introverted view of the justice system - there would be more downsides than upsides," he said. "Now that picture might change, but as I can see it now in October 2026, that's where we are, there are more disadvantages than advantages."